What Do You Think of All This?
by abignobody
Summary: Ten years after the events of Undertale, Frisk and Sans have a heart to heart. FemFrisk.


Frisk shivers and pulls her jacket tighter around her shoulders. She hates this time of year - the quiet doldrums between fall and winter - a time after the trees have been stripped of their colorful leaves but before they are adorned with thick blankets of pristine snow. Too late to play outside in the cool autumn weather, too early to drink hot cocoa around the Christmas tree. Ebbott Town is in a period of transition, a period lacking the redeeming characteristics of either season but carrying the terrible weather of both.

Nevertheless, Frisk is a determined girl. She clenches her fists in her jacket pockets and marches forward along the path. As she walks, she listens to the leaves being crushed underfoot with each step. It's therapeutic, in a sense. Every footfall brings with it a satisfying crunch, one after another in perfect timing. When she focuses on the noise, it seems to take on a rhythm - a steady drumbeat cutting into the stillness of the night, only backed up by the chirping of a distant cricket. It's a song that only plays around Frisk as she walks, a small flicker of noise traveling through the quiet night, refusing to be swallowed by the silence.

As each step brings another beat to the melody, it also brings back a memory of a time long passed. Frisk remembers walking this same path hundreds of times. After school, she would lead her friends - a small pack of human and monster children - up the trail, all the way to the top of Mt. Ebbott. She remembers playing hide and seek, ducking behind the trees that grew alongside the the path. She remembers footraces up and down the mountain that ended in many a scraped knee. She remembers that sometimes, she would come up here by herself. On clear nights, she would come up to the clearing at the top of the mountain, find a comfortable spot to lie down in the grass, and watch the stars for a while. When she was this far away from the bright lights of the town, the stars seemed impossibly brilliant, and so numerous that it seemed impossible to think that anyone could ever reliably find a constellation. She would watch them twinkle for a while, and she would imagine they were sending her a coded message, for her and her alone. She never figured out what they were saying, but that's okay. She just liked that they talked to her.

Frisk shivers again. She exhales, and watches as her breath clouds up in front of her. As the fog dissipates, she can just make out the clearing at the end of the trail. Silhouetted against the starry sky is a bench, seating a lone, stocky figure wearing a loose hoodie.

Frisk walks up beside the bench.

"Hey."

"heya, kiddo. have a seat."

Frisk sits down on the other end of the bench. PHHHHHHHBT.

"...man. what did you eat for dinner?"

Frisk chuckles and flicks the whoopee cushion into Sans's lap. "One of these days, I'll start looking before I sit down."

"then i'll have to say goodbye to 60% of my comedy routine."

"I trust you can write up some new jokes."

"maybe, but it's hard to be original these days."

"That's true."

Frisk and Sans say nothing for a time. The two take a moment to admire the stars, as each of them have done so many times before.

"So what did you call me out here for at this hour?"

"well jeez kid, can't a skeleton call his best pal to come out and see the stars at 1 AM without having an ulterior motive?"

"Not normally, no."

"gosh, i'm hurt."

"Really, what is it? It's not like you to make plans like this."

"fine, you got me. i just wanted to have a bit of a chat." Sans leans backs and rests his arms on the back of the bench. "times are a-changin, and i just wanted to get your input on everything."

Frisk raises an inquisitive eyebrow. "Everything?"

"school, family, friends, whatever's on your mind."

"Hmm..." Frisk taps her chin thoughtfully. "Well, I'm starting college next year, so I'm excited for that."

"that is exciting. make sure you don't party too much."

Frisk rolls her eyes. "Thanks for the tip, mom."

"make sure you don't party too little either."

Frisk snorts and stifles a laugh. "Nevermind, you two are nothing alike."

"nah, i bet toriel was a total party animal in college."

"That's a fun mental image." Frisk tucks her legs onto the bench and wrapps her arms around them, cocooning herself in an effort to stave away the cold. "Um, what else is there... Mom and Dad are still trying really hard to get that bill passed."

"the one to legalize human and monster marriage?"

"Yeah, they're working so hard I'm kind of worried for them. I hope it passes soon so they can go on vacation. Politics seem really stressful."

"i know what you mean. i was class president when i was in 8th grade."

"Were you really?"

"i was the only one in the class. i was also vice prez, treasurer, and executive hot dog manager."

"A man of many talents."

"truly."

"Once this dumb thing passes, though, I think we'll be one step closer to humans and monsters living in harmony."

"it's a big step, but it's still a really long road."

"Yeah." Frisk looks down at the bench, at the space between herself and Sans. Engraved into the wood is a small plaque - Asriel Dreemurr Memorial Bench. It seems insulting to Asriel that this is all he has to be remembered by, given his role in freeing the monsters from the underground. Frisk thinks he deserves a statue at the top of Mount Ebbott, but of course, she can't tell anyone that.

Instead, she just traces the letters on the plaque with her fingertip.

"so you're optimistic about the future?"

"Cautiously so."

"that's good. because i know if you really wanted to, you could destroy it."

Frisk's finger pauses on the plaque. In the silence thereafter, the night grows impossibly quiet. The wind, the crickets, and the rustling leaves all pause their incessant noisemaking to listen to the conversation on the bench.

Frisk hesitantly looks up to see Sans facing her, his eyes pitch black, missing that comforting pinprick of light that she was accustomed to. She hadn't seen his eyes like that since... God, since she was still trapped in the underground, when they had dinner at Mettaton's resort.

"N-no, Sans, I lost the ability to save and load once I left the underground, I've told you I-"

"i know you're in there, kid." His voice had taken on an eerie monotone that she had never heard before. It was now devoid of joviality, of friendliness, of any characteristic that she would normally associate with Sans. Now, his voice was purely threatening.

Frisk held her pleading stare with Sans for only a moment longer before her face dropped. "Alright comedian, you got me." Her neutral expression slowly twisted into a bizarre grin, and her cheeks grew hot as a crimson blush settled onto her face.

"and whom do i have the pleasure of addressing here?"

"My name is Chara."

"it's nice to meet you, chara. so tell me, what have you done with frisk?"

"Frisk doesn't exist anymore. In this timeline, she never did. I've just been wearing her mask since the beginning."

"all this time, it's just been you."

"It's just been me."

Sans sighed and dropped his eyes to the ground. Chara saw a faint blue light tinge the edges of his eye socket. His eyes must be back to normal.

"I'm honestly impressed. How did you figure it out?"

"i have faint memories of seeing you in the last reset. it was the same soul, but... different, somehow."

"You mean when I killed you?"

"you don't intimidate me, kid."

"It would be wise of you to be intimidated. You know what I'm capable of. You just said it yourself. Destroying the future and whatnot."

"and yet, it's been a decade since the barrier was broken, and here we are, stargazing without a care in the world."

"Touché."

"so why are we still here?"

"At this point, I'm not even really sure. At first, I held off because I was curious to see what would happen when the barrier was broken. I wanted to see if the humans would be just as cruel, imprisoning the monsters again or just outright killing them. I wanted to see them at their worst to make their destruction that much more satisfying."

Chara leans back and puts her arms behind her head. "Instead, something different happened. Sure, there were some speedbumps at first, but eventually, everyone got along. This future is one I had long thought to be impossible."

"you made it happen, kid. if this timeline has always been you, then you are responsible for the peace we're living in."

"Don't try to paint me as a good guy. I'm completely indifferent to what happens to this world in the end. I'm just here out of curiosity. Eventually, the humans will show their true colors, I will annihilate them, and that will be that."

"i don't believe you."

"And why not?"

"even after the barrier was broken, i've seen the way you act towards everyone. you try your best to make friends, and you care for the people closest to you. you might not be a good person at heart, but you're no malevolent entity of pure destruction either."

Chara glances over at Sans for a moment before letting out an exasperated sigh and slumping down in the bench. "Honestly, I don't know what I am anymore."

"you're a kid. nothing more, nothing less."

"A kid with the power to destroy the entire universe."

"yeah, but that just goes by the wayside."

"Heh."

The two sit in silence for some time. The stars really are magnificent tonight.

Chara starts to speak, but pauses, considering her words. "How long have you known?"

"since i first met you. i've been wearing a mask so long that it's easy to spot one of my kind."

"Then why wait so long to talk to me about it?"

"i figured you were just going to yo-yo the timelines some more and we'd forget all over again."

"So it took ten years for you to have any hope for the future, huh?"

"not a fan of hope. i like to keep my expectations low so i can only ever be pleasantly surprised."

"You're a depressingly practical creature."

"it's hard to be an optimist after being brutally murdered."

"I can relate."

Chara resumes tracing Asriel's name on the bench. She wonders what he would think of this timeline, if he were... if he were here.

"i still haven't forgiven you."

"I don't expect you to."

Chara hears the pounding in Frisk's soul. She feels her feelings, relives her memories. She wonders if having Frisk's soul for all this time has changed her personality somehow. At this point, she's not sure if it really matters.

She looks back toward the night sky. The stars, in all their brilliance, now seem offensive to her with their twinkling. Their existence has been a constant in the universe, most of them shining for millions of years. Each of them seem so unwavering, so confident with their place among the blackness, that Chara feels tempted to snuff them out, to prove to them that they are powerless in her grasp.

She doesn't want to right now, though.

Instead, the two continue stargazing and listening to the sounds of nighttime. Cicadas buzz in the distance, a car horn sounds off somewhere in the town behind them. A gust of wind blows through the treetops, rustling the branches and showering Mount Ebbott with a gentle flurry of falling leaves. Out here in the open, the song of the night seems much more lively than before.

Sans sighs and slaps his bony hands on the top of his thighs. "alright, kiddo. i don't know what you're doing out this late, but we should get you home before your mom finds out."

Chara snorts in amusement. "Yeah," she sighs, "Yeah, I guess we should."

The two stand up and turn to leave. As they start along the trail, the night's concerto grows quiet once again.


End file.
